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Psychological Autopsies in Court
Author(s) -
Litman Robert E.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1984.tb00340.x
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , psychology , occupational safety and health , set (abstract data type) , medicine , psychiatry , medical emergency , pathology , computer science , programming language
The crucial concept for defining suicide is intention. A major purpose of the psychological autopsy is to clarify the pre‐mortem intentions of the victim, now deceased. This article reports cases in which the issue of suicide vs. accident came to trial because insurance benefits were at issue. Currently, the courts, in considering to what extent mental disorders impair the capacity for intentional self destruction, evaluate each case independently according to its own unique set of facts.